TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian Film Days feature war dramas for Azerbaijanis.The Iranian Cultural Center in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku is organizing the Iranian Film Days by streaming a number of war dramas on YouTube.
Five films have been selected to be screened in the program, which has been organized to commemorate the anniversary of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, the center has announced.
The five-day program, which has commenced on Wednesday, has been arranged after consultation with Azerbaijani cineastes, including Ayaz Salayev, Anvar Abluc and Hamida Omarova, and film critic Aygün Aslanova.
Director and writer Bahram Tavakkoli’s acclaimed film “The Lost Strait” is one of the films on the lineup.
The film scored a big success at the 36th Fajr Film Festival in 2018 by winning awards in six categories including best film and best director.
It is a true story about an epic battle by Iran’s Ammar Battalion during the last days of the Iran-Iraq war.
The Ammar battalion fought against the Iraqi soldiers in an unequal battle in the Abu Ghuraib Strait near Dehloran, Ilam Province.
Iranian forces were engaged in the war in different regions and front lines. The soldiers of Ammar had been granted furloughs to return home to Tehran but were dispatched to the strait after they were informed that the Iraqi forces were making progress in the Fakkeh and Sharhani regions of Khuzestan and Ilam. However, the battalion was totally decimated in the operation.
Another highlight of the lineup is “Track 143” director Narges Abyar has made based on her book of the same title.
The film is about a great maternal sacrifice during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. It tells the story of Olfat, a woman who is waiting for her son, who has been missing in action, to return home.
“Abadan 11, 60” directed by Mehrdad Khoshbakht has also been selected to be screened. It is about locals’ fight against Iraqi forces in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan during the early months of the Iran-Iraq war.
The lineup also includes “Damascus Time” and “The Bodyguard” by Ebrahim Hatamikia.
“Damascus Time” is about an Iranian pilot and his copilot son who are captured by Daesh forces in Syria while they are in the country to deliver a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies to people in a war-torn region.
“The Bodyguard” is about the story of a middle-aged bodyguard who protects a politician from a suicide bomber, and then begins to question his dedication to his job.
“In the Azerbaijani cineastes’ view, Iranian social and family dramas have the potential to attract Azerbaijani filmgoers and Iranian filmmakers such as Ebrahim Hatamikia, Asghar Farhadi, Ali Hatami and Dariush Mehrjui, have a lot to say about social, cultural and religious concepts in Iran for the international audience,” the Iranian Cultural Center said.
Photo: “Track 143” by Nargest Abyar.
